Spiritual Survival Guide
2: Read This If You’re Confused About Faith
We’re from different “denominations,” but not different religions. Think of a house—that’s Christianity. Now think of different rooms in that house. Each of those rooms has a slightly different feel to it (Methodist, Baptist, Catholic, Pentecostal, and so on), but it’s the same house. We belong to the same family, even if we personally feel more comfortable hanging out in some rooms more than others. We have some minor dif- ferences. Like any family, we squabble sometimes. But we belong togeth- er. We’ve got the same head: Jesus. We recognize that there are other religions, other “houses,” than ours. That’s immediately obvious in prison. Look around and you can find every kind of religion, and then some! Many of us have close friends in those other religions. But we’re not able to speak for them. That would be inappropriate and foolish on our part. It’s hard enough for Christians to speak with one united voice sometimes. How could we ever hope to do that for Muslims, Jews, Buddhists, or any other religious group? It’s better to leave that job to people from those communities. We think that each religion ought to speak for itself and stand or fall on its own. It’s wrong to strip away all the distinctive and different ways we see reality. We think that would be untruthful, boring, inauthentic, and unhelpful. There are already plenty of “spiritual self-help” books floating around prison. We’re not interested in creating one more. Why Jesus? We want to offer you an opportunity to meet him yourself for who he really is—and to see what a Jesus-shaped life might mean for you. Atheist, lapsed Christian, Muslim, Buddhist, Satanist, or whoever you are—we don’t pre-judge what meeting with Jesus might mean for you. Perhaps Jesus will “confirm and complete” you by bringing to fulfillment all the good and God-pleasing things in your life. Perhaps Jesus will “con- front and convert” you by unmasking the lies you live by and showing
you his living truth. Perhaps, like us, he’ll do all of those things to you.
Why Grace?
Have you ever asked yourself what life’s all about? How it all fits to- gether? Not just your own individual life, but all of it? What makes it all tick? The world? Existence? Everything? There are two distinctly different ways to talk about what makes it all tick. The first way is earning it. The second way is getting a gift. In the end, it comes down to these two approaches: karma and grace. The idea of karma is everywhere these days. Karma literally means “action.” It’s about actions, deeds, works, and the results of those ac- tions, the consequences of what we do—the law of cause and effect. Karma says that actions always have reactions, that things don’t happen for nothing, that you get what you give. Karma says that what goes around, comes around. Good actions get rewarded, and evil ones get punished—measure for measure—and if not in this lifetime, then in a whole cycle of lifetimes to come. (Karma’s kid sister is reincarnation— coming back around in life after life for the cause and effect process to work itself out. Karma’s got a long time-line.) Settling accounts. Good or bad. Either way, in the end, under karma you get what’s coming to you. You get what you deserve. In the end, you earn it. Karma says, “Now it’s up to you. You’ve got free will. Create your destiny.” Karma says that whoever you are, wherever you are, whatever level you’re on—you deserve it. You’re on top of life? Well, you deserve it! You
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